The Guardians sent two pitchers to the All-Star Game on Tuesday night, and neither allowed a baserunner. Parker Messick and Cade Smith each worked a perfect inning in the American League’s 4-0 win at Citizens Bank Park, a game started and won by Toronto’s Dylan Cease.
Messick, the rookie left-hander, followed Cease in the second inning and needed no help: Max Muncy popped out in foul territory, Ozzie Albies grounded out to short, and Brandon Marsh took a called third strike. Smith’s sixth inning was the harder assignment and the better watch — William Contreras flied out to right, then Bryce Harper and Corbin Carroll went down swinging back to back. Six batters, six outs, no walks, three strikeouts between them. That is about as clean as relief work gets on a stage like this.
Cleveland’s third representative, rookie second baseman Travis Bazzana, went 0-for-2. Per MLB.com, Bazzana and Messick are just the fourth and fifth rookies in franchise history to earn All-Star selections, and the club has now placed multiple players in the game for a tenth consecutive year.
The performance fits the club’s first half. Cleveland reached the break at 51-46 on a four-game winning streak, dead even with the White Sox at .526 atop the AL Central, and has done it with run prevention and at-bats that do not give innings away. The second half opens with the same two arms — one anchoring the rotation’s future, one closing the door late — pitching like the division race will run through them.
On the fantasy side, Smith remains one of the highest-strikeout, lowest-ratio relievers available and belongs in every saves-plus-holds build for the stretch run. Messick is the more interesting add in shallower leagues: a rookie starter trending up on a first-place team, still unowned in plenty of places, with a schedule that gets friendlier in late July.
